Still a place for corded tools

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  • capncarl
    Veteran Member
    • Jan 2007
    • 3564
    • Leesburg Georgia USA
    • SawStop CTS

    #16
    When I see a 18 v Ryobi vac, the small kind like you use in a car, I'll give it a try. I want to see if it will suck up bug in my garden! In the summer stink bugs try to take over and are about immune to insecticides, but will hang around so I can vac them, I hope.
    New use for battery tools!
    capncarl

    Comment

    • tfischer
      Veteran Member
      • Jul 2003
      • 2343
      • Plymouth (Minneapolis), MN, USA.
      • BT3100

      #17
      Originally posted by capncarl
      When I see a 18 v Ryobi vac, the small kind like you use in a car, I'll give it a try. I want to see if it will suck up bug in my garden! In the summer stink bugs try to take over and are about immune to insecticides, but will hang around so I can vac them, I hope.
      New use for battery tools!
      capncarl
      We have a little pond and fountain in the middle of our garden so there's power running to it... it's actually just a buried extension cord put in by the previous owners, but I occasionally will tap into it so I can use tools out there. In fact I *do* use a shop vac out there at least once a year to clean out the little pond.

      Comment

      • twistsol
        Veteran Member
        • Dec 2002
        • 2893
        • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
        • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

        #18
        I'm not a fan of cordless and just have alot of extension cords. I use corded for everything because I always seem to need to swap batteries at the worst time. My cordless tools are basically limited to a couple of drills and a drywall router. My drywall screw gun is corded because there is nothing worse than having a dead screw gun while standing on a ladder with a 12 foot sheet of sheetrock on your head. I also have a Rigid Hammer drill and drilling into concrete burns through batteries really fast so now it is just a heavy duty screwdriver.

        I gave my daughter in Duluth a Ryobi 40 volt battery powered snowblower so she can keep it in the back of her car without having a gas smell. Princess Shannon thinks snow shovels are too pedestrian.
        Chr's
        __________
        An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
        A moral man does it.

        Comment

        • Luuuey
          Handtools only
          • Apr 2017
          • 1

          #19
          Well, I am new to this site, but what I was originally doing was looking for batteries -- replacement batteries -- for the craftsman 19.2 V system. We all know that Sears is going down the tubes.

          My very first Craftsman heavy duty 19.2 V drill … I had old ones lower voltage … was in 2004 and it was a standard Sears / Craftsman offer -- you got a drill and a flashlight and two batteries ( those were NiCad's in those days ) and a THIRD free battery, that you had to mail away for and that was definitely from Ryobi … because the coupon that you had to mail away for the free battery went to Ryobi technologies in South Carolina.

          People on this thread have committed about different voltages and I'm here to tell you that tiny difference in voltages are REALLY immaterial.

          You can use a 19.2 V battery on an 18 volt Drill, or even on a 14 volt drill with absolutely no harm no foul, -- especially if it's a variable speed drill and you just don't run it wide open all the time.

          I’ve got lots of experience in electronics -- Air Force, then power company employee for 34 years, but I guess my main qualification is farmboy.

          People here say the word CORDED … I have even made an additional cord using a 12 gauge extension cord (probably a power cord off of some old device) to use the craftsman 19.2 V batteries on old cheap literally throw away drills from someplace like Harbor Freight or Minard's.

          All you have to do is make a cord – I use those automotive push on connectors and spade lugs and make an adapter connector.

          I was doing work – OVERHEAD -- on a deck and you just need to carry the battery around … like in a nail apron or in a fanny pack … and if you've got a cord that's a four or a 6 foot cord you can do all sorts of work. PLUS, you’re lessening the amount of load that you carry since you're just holding the drill in your hand and not the entire battery/ drill weight.

          I use the BIG 19.2 v. Batts that way -- but if it's an old orphan drill that you don't have batteries for anymore, so what?? BUT there's no harm whatsoever. JL

          Comment

          • woodturner
            Veteran Member
            • Jun 2008
            • 2047
            • Western Pennsylvania
            • General, Sears 21829, BT3100

            #20
            Originally posted by Luuuey
            We all know that Sears is going down the tubes.
            Rather unlikely, actually. Based on reading their reports and business plans, they have at least another decade and are likely to emerge as a strong competitor.

            You can use a 19.2 V battery on an 18 volt Drill, or even on a 14 volt drill with absolutely no harm no foul, -- especially if it's a variable speed drill and you just don't run it wide open all the time.
            That may work for a time, but exceeding the voltage rating will cause the motor to run hotter than designed and it does damage the motor.

            --------------------------------------------------
            Electrical Engineer by day, Woodworker by night

            Comment

            • tfischer
              Veteran Member
              • Jul 2003
              • 2343
              • Plymouth (Minneapolis), MN, USA.
              • BT3100

              #21
              Originally posted by woodturner

              Rather unlikely, actually. Based on reading their reports and business plans, they have at least another decade and are likely to emerge as a strong competitor.
              I hope you're right, but they also think K-Mart has a survival plan.

              Comment

              • twistsol
                Veteran Member
                • Dec 2002
                • 2893
                • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
                • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

                #22
                Sears has been staying afloat by selling off assets, mostly real estate, as well as the recent sale of the Crafstman brand. Sales have dropped by 1/3 in the last couple of years, there has been virtually no investment in their brick an mortar stores, cost cutting measures aren't keeping pace with the decline in revenue and losses in the past 3 years close to 5 billion and accelerating. They'll be around for a while yet, but I doubt either Sears or K-Mart will exist in 5 years.

                In their most recent 10-K filing with the SEC they included the following: "Our historical operating results indicate substantial doubt exists related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern" 10-K filings are rarely roses and daffodils, but this is pretty strong language leaning toward pessimism.

                On the other hand, If they execute flawlessly and everything breaks their way, they may survive.
                Chr's
                __________
                An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
                A moral man does it.

                Comment

                • cwsmith
                  Veteran Member
                  • Dec 2005
                  • 2737
                  • NY Southern Tier, USA.
                  • BT3100-1

                  #23
                  All it takes is a visit to your local Sears store to see that they're he!!-bent on going out of business. It's hard to imagine that they could ever be managed worse than they have been over the last couple of decades. My late FIL had a career with Sears as the local hardware dept manager. He had a wall full of awards and his hardware dept was for three years in a row the best-selling dept on the east coast. He retired soon after Sears started, what was termed as, their "21st Century" model of selling; put as much detail on the box as possible, stack the isles high and do away with educating the sales force. His staff was cut in half and they did away with the so-called "six-percenters"... those were the guys who received minimum wage plus 6% commission on what they sold.

                  After he retired, things got so bad in the store that he simply couldn't stand to go there.... empty bins, displays a mess, etc. Soon thereafter, they stopped their catalog business too. I never understood that move, as it was their core business, the business that got Sears it's fame. Then they merged with K-Mart, another one of those WTH moments; and now they've sold their "Craftsman" name to who??? to Black and Decker of all companies!

                  I was in the local Sears a few weeks ago, two guys standing around the hardware dept, which is in a total disorganized shambles. Stationary tools in a state of corrosion with parrts missing, etc. Shelves look like they haven't been attended to in weeks. Yet these two guys are now the only sales people on the entire floor. Nobody in automotive, girls or womens dept, appliances, or bath.... you find something you want to buy, you have to take it to the two guys in hardware. Appliance dept also had many empty stalls and appliances still in their shipping boxes just sitting in the middle of the floor. OH, and absolutely noting whatsoever in electronics.... no TV's, etc.

                  Just a few years ago their automotive service garage was always busy, but on that afternoon there were no cars in there, or service people and the lights were off.

                  YET, this particular store is not on the latest closure list.

                  CWS

                  Think it Through Before You Do!

                  Comment

                  • woodturner
                    Veteran Member
                    • Jun 2008
                    • 2047
                    • Western Pennsylvania
                    • General, Sears 21829, BT3100

                    #24
                    Originally posted by cwsmith
                    All it takes is a visit to your local Sears store to see that they're he!!-bent on going out of business.
                    Sounds like that may be YOUR local Sears - completely different experience at my local Sears stores. Busy all the time, well organized and stocked, plenty of cashiers. Business seems to be booming.
                    --------------------------------------------------
                    Electrical Engineer by day, Woodworker by night

                    Comment

                    • tfischer
                      Veteran Member
                      • Jul 2003
                      • 2343
                      • Plymouth (Minneapolis), MN, USA.
                      • BT3100

                      #25
                      ...and ours is somewhere in between. I'd hardly call it 'booming", but not as desolate as CWS's either. The whole store has a bit of a "stuck in the 70s" vibe... not unlike K-mart, where the whole infrastructure hasn't been updated since the stores were originally built, but they use a lot of cardboard signs to try to modernize things.

                      Contrast that to Target, that seems to do a major renovation every 5 years at most.

                      Comment

                      • cwsmith
                        Veteran Member
                        • Dec 2005
                        • 2737
                        • NY Southern Tier, USA.
                        • BT3100-1

                        #26
                        Yes, I realize that many areas have good business and are looking fairly good. I really don't understand the local area, but like so many once-industrial areas this one is in a very sad state of decline. The city of Binghamton has about half the population it once had with more than a thousand houses for sale with no buyers (I own one of those). While our local Lockheed plant seems to be doing well, we've lost just about all of the industry that I grew up with and in which I started my work career back in the mid-60's. Through just 50's right up through the most of the 80's and early 90's almost anyone who wanted a job, got one at a fairly decent wage, with modest to great benefits.

                        Gone are IBM's Federal Systems and Business EntrySystems plants. The latter occupied most of Endicott, which was a bustling little city all by itself with great shops, restaurants, motels, theaters, etc. It is now almost a ghost town. Johnson City the smaller of the "triple cities area" towns, is in a state of decay. Gone are the vast Endicott-Johnson shoe factories, some now torn down and other just abandoned and full of rats and bats. Stores in downtown JC are abandoned, with empty, dirty windows and decays fascades. House in that area are falling apart with garbage in the streets and yards. You can drive down the main street on some days and see absolutely nobody, except the occasional derelict.

                        Binghamton, where I live on the west side, is also at a point where we struggle against the decline. Here in our area, we've lost two theaters and several restaurants, two new car dealerships, several service garages on our end of town. Overall, the city has lost about a dozen movie theaters and more restaurants than I can count in the last thirty years. Probably an equal number of machine shops, small manufacturing concerns, and even large manufacturers like Singer-Link (aircraft simulatores), GAF (film and duplication machines), Ozalid (blue print machines) Stowe (construction equipment and concrete tools), Kupfrian (marine and auto remote systems and cable),Tichners (steel fabrications), V-B (book printer publisher), and dozens of printers and technical art companies. Along with that manufactures of everything from electronics to plastics.

                        This city is nothing like it once was... not even a shadow of what it was in the 70's; and along with that have gone so many retailers that I can't begin to count them. We just closed a Macy's and I won't be surprised if Sears closes before the end of the year. We used to have four open shopping centers and now all of them are gone, with one replacement anchored by Walmart on one end and Sam's Club on the other with an ever changing series of hopefuls in the middle... most of them lasting only a few years.

                        Our Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and Lowes seems to be booming though. At HF, it's hard to find a parking space on some days.

                        CWS
                        Think it Through Before You Do!

                        Comment

                        • Carlos
                          Veteran Member
                          • Jan 2004
                          • 1893
                          • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

                          #27
                          Older cordless tools were rather deficient. In the last few year I've replaced them all with DeWalt Li-Ion cordless, and dumped all the cordless tools. The last straw came when I realized my 20v Li-Po circular was more powerful than its plug-in brother.

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